Speaker
Description
Fusing light atomic nuclei to yield a heavier nucleus while releasing vast amounts of energy, a process known as ‘Nuclear Fusion’, has long been dreamt of as a permanent solution to the energy requirement of all of mankind. The world is eagerly looking forward to this virtually
limitless and environmentally friendly energy source, which at present stands at a threshold of transition: from theoretical promise to engineering demonstration and, eventually, to practical
energy generation. Hence, fusion research is aggressively pursued worldwide to turn this dream into a reality. Achieving controlled fusion on Earth is not an easy task, as extreme conditions required for fusion i.e., temperatures exceeding tens or even hundreds of millions of degrees and keeping the high-temperature plasma in magnetic traps or inertial systems, pose immense demands on materials surrounding the traps, energy input, and engineering. Based on research spanning over several decades, the magnetically confined plasma-based fusion reactor strategies – led by the tokamak device- are emerging as the front-runners. Both the leading experimental devices for demonstrating fusion, the Government-funded ‘International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)’ and the private-funded ‘Smallest Possible Affordable, Robust, Compact (SPARC) Tokamak’ are based on Tokamak configuration. Although realization of fusion power generation in a tokamak-based reactor is
considered far more feasible compared to other configurations, several challenges related to high magnetic fields, high-power beams, radio-frequency waves and their supplies, complex operation, materials, radiations etc., are still required to be surmounted.
India invested significantly in magnetically confined fusion research for decades through the indigenous construction of tokamaks and the development of several fusion technologies.
These efforts culminated in several pioneering discoveries in the field of tokamak research and facilitated India's becoming a full partner in the ITER mega-project. In this presentation, the overall progress of tokamak-based fusion research worldwide, along with Indian contribution
will be presented, outlining the challenges that still need attention.